Three Little Princesses
by Defying.Expectations
Summary: A short story about the three main females of Sweeney Todd. Muses on fairy tales, princes, and ever afters.
1. Prologue: Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, there were three little princesses.

One of them lived a fairy tale from her very beginning, before it was stolen away from her.

One of them lived a nightmare, before she was at last given her fairy tale life.

And one of them never lived the fairy tale for any portion of her life, but still clung to the dreams of the happily ever after one day being hers.

Once upon a time, there were three little princesses.

These are their tales, and their ever afters.


	2. Chapter One: The Stolen Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a little princess was born.

The girl's parents were neither wealthy nor poor, though on the relative scale, they were slightly better off than most of their time.  They named the child Lucinda, or Lucy for short.  She had three brothers, but being the only girl in the family, she was doted upon a fair bit.

Her time growing up was a simple upbringing – not lacking, not overbearing.  She was a happy child.

She was a young twenty when she met her prince.  Young, yes, but her parents were quite eager to have her away and out of their house, and so had been trying to find her a beau for some time now.

Her prince was the most handsome man she had ever seen.  Their eyes met across the dance floor at the party she was attending one night.  She was drawn instantly to his eyes, arrested by his lovely gaze.  Never had she seen such a face, so finely crafted, so elegantly shaped: lips that curved so gently; and hair that fell so softly; and cheekbones that held so much dignity; and eyes that were so dark, so dark, yet filled with so much light, so much shine, so much beauty.

He asked her to dance that night.  She said yes.  After some months of courting, she found herself wed to this perfect man; a few years later, she was with child.

The time she spent with her prince was the best time of her life.  She had never been more content, had never felt such pure joy, sure utter peace with her life and everything around her.

She had read fairy tales as a child, and had always dreamed of being swept off her feet by her prince one day, and living happily ever after. 

She'd never thought it would really happen.  But it did.

Except she found out that happily ever after wasn't always forever.  Sometimes there was another volume.  Sometimes there were more chapters.

Her prince was sent away from her, with a life sentence to Australia.  She was left alone with a year old child, and a judge who was far too fascinated with her than she would have liked.  She tried not to encourage him, but eventually he caught her. 

It was temporary, it was brief.  It was still the most scarring experience of her life.

Life was black, so black after that.  There was nothing to do, nothing to live for, nothing to hope for, nothing to hold on to.  Her prince was gone, never to return; her villain would not go away not matter how many times she turned away from the window.  Her heir to the throne was the only thing she had left, but even the heir she could not care properly for. 

The little girl would be better off without her foolish, naïve mother around, the princess decided.

So, she went to the apothecary, and purchased poison.  Her silly landlady objected, told her not to be a nit, she still had options, not all was lost.  The pie maker, poor thing, just didn't understand. 

The weary princess gave her landlady a sad smile before downing the poison in a single swallow.

And then the princess was gone.  No, she was still there, but she wasn't where she was.  Or where she used to be.  If she had ever been where she used to be.  Perhaps she was where she was supposed to be. If she was supposed to be somewhere.  Or perhaps she wasn't supposed to be anywhere.

Nothing made much sense anymore.

Everything was fuzzy.  Everything was off-color.  Everything was odd.

Life went by in strange blocks of time.  First she was lying down.  Sometimes she was in bed, listening to someone singing.  Sometimes she was on a boat, being rocked and pushed along by the waves.  Sometimes she was trapped, trapped in a caged cell, and no matter how she would scream to be let out, no one would come to her.

Next she was placed in a room with nothing but screams, screams.  She would squeeze her eyes shut, cover her ears, and she would scream too, if only to drown out the other screams.

Finally she was put outside.  Of all the places, she liked it best there.  She was able to move, able to breathe, able to do as she liked.  The world was quieter.  The only screams were her own, at least most of the time. 

So she wandered the streets, yelling, jabbering, cackling, begging, singing.  Scrabbling to get by.

Her life had started off as a fairy tale, but she'd had it stolen away from her.

And she lived miserably ever after.


	3. Chapter Two: The Given Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a little princess was born.

The girl was raised by her adoptive father.  She did not remember her real parents, aside from the few words her guardian had told her about them: that her mother was beautiful, that her father was a fool, that they had given her the name of Johanna.  And that was all that was ever said on the subject.

Her adoptive father was a judge, so she had a wealthy upbringing, filled with fancy clothing and rooms and items.  But she was a prisoner in her own home, hardly ever allowed to leave.  Worse, he treated her like an object rather than a daughter, something to be observed and admired distantly, yet never really 'raised'.  And one could never tell when he would be about to lash out at her, or when he would pull her into his arms for a loving hug.  It scared her, but she tried not to show her fear to him.

She would gaze out the window wistfully, dreaming and longing for a brighter future. 

Singing was one of the few things that kept her sane at times.  It gave her hope.  It made her dreams seem closer.

Reading, too, was pleasurable.  Her adoptive father had said that reading was not becoming for a lady – that she should know how to read, yes, but reading for pleasure?  Ridiculous.  But that didn't stop her from perusing his bookshelf when he was not at home, hiding novels under her bed and between her pillows.  Some of the books she found boring, and others she simply did not understand at such a young age, but there were those that she treasured dearly, and would find herself reading over and over again.

She was a young sixteen when she met her prince.  Young, yes, but still well on her to becoming a mature lady.  Living in such horrid conditions had taught her to grow up a little faster than most in some areas – though it had also caused her to be slightly more naïve than others her age.

But there he was, there was her prince, a young man looking up at her through her window.  She knew instantly, instinctively, that he was going to be hers one day.  That he would be her savior, her protector, her love. 

He would wander beneath her window every day, would stroll down the sidewalk as often as he could.  One day, she could bear it no longer.  She could not continue to stare out the window and do nothing but dream.  Without second thought, she sprang up from her window bench, dug through her drawers, and grabbed a key to her home.  She opened the window a crack and tossed it down to him, her doleful eyes silently imploring him to come rescue her.

He caught the key.  She closed the window.  He walked away, and she was left with nothing to do but sit down again and silently pray that he would come back for her one day.

And there he was the very next day, appearing shortly after the judge had left for court that day.  He made plans for them to flee away from here, flee away from this wretched place, and to get married.  She said yes, and that was that. 

Or so she thought, until mere hours later she found herself grabbed up by the beadle, who took her to an insane asylum.

She didn't know how long she spent in there.  Time was nonexistent in that little cell.  People screamed, people cried, people shouted and bumped into each other.  She did her best to stay away from them all, curling into herself, tucking into a ball. 

She sang to herself in there.  Day in, day out, she kept on singing.  It was the only way she could cling to her sanity; it was the only thing that reminded her that she had a purpose, a reason to go on.

At long last, there he was.  Her prince, come to rescue her.  She was slightly more wary of him and his grand plans than before.  Some of her innocence had been shattered and broken by the asylum.  The institute had shown her something that she had never witnessed before: how precious and fragile life was.  How easily it could be ripped to shreds.  She expressed some of her concerns to him once he had taken her away, but he dismissed them, saying that there was nothing more to fear, that she was safe now.

As it turned out, she wasn't safe.  Just minutes later, she witnessed Mr. Todd – the man her prince had spoken so highly of – slash the throats of two humans.  He would have made it three – hers being the third – if he hadn't heard a scream from down below.  He told her to forget his face – and then, as quick as he had come, he was gone. 

The next time she saw that man, he was lying on the floor, limp, blood dripping from his neck, three other corpses laying along in various positions nearby.  She hid her face in her prince's jacket.

The two of them were then off to Paris for their wedding.  They traveled around Europe for their honeymoon, and then returned to London.

The ghosts will go away, he told her again and again.

She always replied that they never go away. 

Because they didn't.  They never did, and they never would.  Still, she found that, once she allowed herself to breathe, to realize that she was free – she was able to enjoy life like she never had before.  All her dreams had come true.  She had her own loving family; with a beautiful house that she resided in, but was not trapped inside of; with a life that she was grateful and happy to live.

It was the best time of her life, with her prince and castle and their heirs to the throne.  She hoped that it would never end.  She had a feeling, a feeling deep within her that she couldn't explain, that it never would.

She had read fairy tales as a child, and had always dreamed of being swept off her feet by her prince one day, and living happily ever after. 

She'd never thought it would really happen.  But it did.

It wasn't perfect.  What ever was?  But she couldn't think of a single way that it could possibly get better.

Her life had started out as far away from being a fairy tale as possible, but eventually she had been given one.

And she lived happily ever after.


	4. Chapter Three: The Never Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a little princess was born.

The girl's parents were of the lower-middle class, but the little family always managed to get by, one way or another. The princess was named Eleanor, though she much preferred Nellie, the nickname her siblings had given to her.

The girl learned the basic skills that would carry her throughout her life during her childhood. How to cook, how to clean, how to not let a thing go to waste. How to be clever, how to be cunning, how to be deft. How to be quick with her feet, mind, and tongue.

She was a young twenty-two when she met her prince. Young, yes, but she had still seen quite a bit of life by that age. She'd been around the streets a few times, as it were. Though she had seen much cruelties and abuse in her life, she still held out hope for a better future. That was all there was to do at times, what with time being so rough. She may have been living somewhat low at the moment, but she never lost sight of her dreams for the future, her dreams that she would one day turn to reality.

The prince moved into the room above her pie shop, he and his wife, and set up his barbershop in there as well.

He was beautiful. There was no other way to put it. She could go on and on, could write endless lists and poems and letters about why he was so gorgeous, so perfect, so breathtaking. She tried to restrain herself from thinking on him too much though. He was unattainable. He was married. So was she, for that matter. A relationship between them would never happen, and she knew that.

But she couldn't stop looking, couldn't stop admiring this beautiful man that was just out of her reach, couldn't stop wishing he would one day belong to her and not to that silly dolt that was always attached to his arm.

Then one day, he was captured and taken away.

He was gone. She was alone. It was a dreadful feeling, to be so alone while there were so many people still around her; a cold, all-consuming feeling that kept her lying awake at night with wet tears spilling down her cheeks.

But she kept on. She kept on, because she was strong. Just because times were difficult didn't mean she should hang her head in defeat. Defeat was not a word in her vocabulary. She'd been through hard periods before. Perhaps not as hard as this one – for she had never lost something so meaningful, so precious – but even so, that was no reason for her to succumb to despair.

The prince's wife, silly nit, was not so strong. Unable to cope with her grief and pain, she swallowed poison, though that only made her situation worse, since after that she just went entirely loopy.

Though the princess felt bad for her tenant, she was also angry with her. Here was this woman who'd had everything – her castle, her prince, her heir to the throne – and yet, the instant one of them was gone, the instant she'd been violated, she completely lost all hope. Silly thing, stupid thing, not able to even try and hold out for a better tomorrow.

So when the prince returned – more broken and bitter than before, but still her beautiful prince – she didn't tell him that his wife still lived. The foolish girl hadn't been willing to live on and try to wait for him, hadn't been willing to try and get by – she didn't deserve his attention.

Whereas_ this_ princess had slaved away all her life, throughout all the hard times that had befallen her, and had never gotten any reward. Perhaps now, without that fool around, he might notice her as more than just his landlady. Perhaps now, without that ninny at his side, he would love her as she loved him.

Perhaps now, without that clod all over him, he would want her to be his princess.

Moreover, would he even want to know what had become of his wife? He was teetering on the brink as it was. To know that his wife had been reduced to a mere pile of madness might be more than he could bear. Yes, it was better this way.

She tried to let him know continually how she felt. Most of the time, though, he barely seemed to notice her. But that didn't deter her. One day, she kept telling herself, one day he would see her standing there, waiting for him. One day, they would be together, happily married. One day, they would go live by the sea, and be the happy family that she always wanted.

One day, they would live happily ever after.

And so, she waited for him. She waited. Waited. Waited. Because all good things come to those who wait, after all.

So she waited. Waited. Waited.

Somewhere deep down inside, she knew that it would never happen. Somewhere deep down inside, she knew that they were just dreams, and that they would never be reality.

But it was only her dreams that had kept her going throughout all these many hard years. Without them, she would be lost. So she buried the part of her that knew these dreams would never come true, silenced it, and kept on dreaming.

She had read fairy tales as a child, and had always dreamed of being swept off her feet by her prince one day, and living happily ever after.

She'd somehow always clung to the hope that the tales could be spun into reality. But she was proven wrong.

Her life had never been a fairy tale, and never would be either.

And so she lived neither miserably nor happily ever after, but just after, after, on and on, trying to get by.

_-Fin_

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**A/N: I just wanted to give a huge shout-out to everyone who's read this fic -- within the span of less than a week, it received over 400 total hits. I'm really flattered, thanks so much. And double thank you to all who reviewed . . . those always brighten my day. As always, please let me know your thoughts, and thanks again for reading. :)**


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